Monday, October 22, 2007

One of those good kinds of days

It's been a good good day. Better than good. One of those days that offset all the bad days in the past week and make you smile and skip down the road and want to hug a stranger.

I had a repeat Xray scheduled today since the last one came back with an abnormality, which held up the Visa process until that would be cleared up. We went to the diagnostics centre and I spoke to the doc and asked if there is any other way to do this. One, to speed up the process and two, avoid it all together. He said that I do need to go for further testing because there was a pathology in one of the ribs. And in fact, that another Xray won't do it, that I need to do a CT scan.

Now, all this is fine and dandy except for the fact that a CT scan costs a lot of money when it comes from your pocket. So our faces hung a little low and I thought we'll have to bite the bullet that costs at least $400. This blessed man saw our expressions and goes "Well, how much were you planning to pay?" To which I didn't miss a beat and said that we were planning to pay about $50 for another Xray. To which he goes "Well, then we'll do it for $50 for you".

So yes, we can say that we made $350 today.

I wanted to hug him. He just walked off and told the receptionist to charge only us $50.

How often do random people, who have never seen you before, ask how much you are willing to pay for something that costs a lot, lot money? And ok, that might happen from time to time but how often does someone tell you that they will write off $350? It's not like we had an extended conversation there - it just happened.

This made me think of a couple of things. One, when it seems like our prayers are not answered and no one even hears them, sometimes things are happening behind the scenes and actually working out for our better. Not just for our good but for our better. I won't go into details but if this would not have happened today, the process would have taken at least a couple more weeks.

And also, lately I have been thinking a lot about why we don't see more healings and miracles in the churches in the west. Why those things are not an everyday occurrence. It really kind of bugs me in a way because I am convinced that it is supposed to be happening more often. I have talked to people around me and the one answer that I have gathered for now is that we are so content and overly abundant in our every day lives that we just don't know how and don't have a need to live in a dependence on God.

We have been taken care of above and beyond during this time but when we think about it, Neil and I, two adults, have not worked and earned a single penny in the last almost 5 months. And we are not in need of anything. And then there are things like this happening. That's HUGE when you don't know when there will be any stability in your bank account and when a little thing called paycheck will roll in.

Not only that, but I have another really cool thing to tell. While in Norway, I got bitten by a tick. This tick happened to be carrying Lyme disease. And I happened to get that Lyme disease. I was very successful at ignoring the fact that there is this huge ring expanding on my arm for 4 months. Then my mom found out because I made an off-hand comment and asked her what she thinks about it. Well, imagine what a mom says when her daughter is on the other side of the world... She told me to go to docs immediately because those ticks in Europe have paralyzed people for life and all sorts of bad and serious things can happen. The "red ring" had taken up half of my arm and I was starting to get some side-effects.

Keep in mind once again that my insurance here has ran out and the only thing I can rely on and trust in is God.

I just finished a month of antibiotics and have to say that I am feeling like brand new from the factory. It's all gone and there is nothing left.

It's really good to see these little and big things happening and to know that they are not coincidences. I know that the doc today wasn't there by accident. That that doctor there was on duty today because we needed him there. We needed his help. God gets involved in the little details of our lives. He cares about what we care. It is important to him. I am pretty sure that He gets real pleasure when these kinds of things happen and we give Him the credit. I think that's what a relationship is. We talk, ask, say thank you and He answers.

Did I mention we got a call that the house for rent is ours? Oh, hold on to your pats - there is another story in the making!